No, that's all I got, no apologies or stuff like that. Just the mail I posted above. Also, since I didn't tell them the name of my YouTube channel nor gave them any links to my videos, they must have removed the claim alltogether.
But I fear that things are only going to be fine from this point on - don't know what happens to all the deleted videos, or channels being punished for breaking copyright rules, and I don't think there is anything that can be done. For this I know the "procedures" that Google follows not well enough...
Today the copyright claims are gone. So it took 3 days in total, but ofcourse the weekend is in those 3 days. So they resolved it quick. It still kinda bothers me though. Again i don't make money from the videos, my channel is too small and i don't think one can monetize gameplay videos anyway. But still, for a company to just claim random stuff bothers me.
I wonder if there is just an algorythm that is used or if it's really a person manually selecting videos. Either way is annoying. Especially for people trying to make some euros (or dollars).
What bothers me the most is that there was no contact at all. Even a little email saying "whoops! our bad" would be enough for me. Ah well, ranting time is over. Thank you for listening to that guys
I still think someting should be done, with the only "power" we have.
Something like a video offensive or something?
All of us make a video talking about the idiocy of the claims and naming our fellow youtubers who got hit in the vid and links. Maybe somebody has a better idea?
Feel free to contact me via youtube, i would gladly collect the list of people that got hit with this and give them to everyone making a vid about this.
I know it won't change much, but at least we get to voice our opinion and maybe help fellow youtubers that got hit too.
Ok, ok really done ranting now.
Okay, a little follow up: Since I think that blunt protest is not the way to address this matter, I have sent a mail to copyright@youtube.com, hoping that it does have some kind of effect:
Hello,
I hope I am writing to the correct address, at least it seemed suitable. If you are not handling this kind of mail, I apologize and kindly ask you to forward it to the corresponding department.
On Monday the 30th of April I have uploaded three videos, with audio/video content from the Videogame
"The Walking Dead"
by Telltale Games, CA USA.
Right after upload, the videos have been marked with a copyright claim from "IDG Germany", a publisher for magazines who also focuses on videogames.
A lot of videos from gamers here in Germany containing footage of the above game have been marked with this claim, and videos have been removed in the last few days from their YouTube channels. Not knowing what rights IDG could possibly own on this game, I was curious and called the offices of IDG in Munich. After some phone calls and some mail traffic, I got the following message from the stakeholder of "Content Management & Social Media" at IDG:
(Translated)
/Hello Mr. ******,
The copyright notice was displayed because a YouTube channel in the IDG network globally claimed another video by accident. I have removed the claim this morning and the copyright notice should vanish sometime today./ /
Best regards,/
Shortly after I haved received this mail all the copyright claims have been removed from my videos, as well as from the ones of others that luckily had their videos not deleted by now (there was a discussion in the forums of telltalegames.com about this issue).
Seeing this, I am a little bit concerned. Not only that copyrights can be claimed "by accident", but also that videos have been removed and YouTube channels could have possibly be punished for copyright violations when there were non to begin with.
I kindly propose that Google Inc. tries to give a little bit more information on copyright claims when they are put on uploaded videos, so that users can see on what possible rights they are based on. I hope this seems like a reasonable idea and is technically possible. This would make future copyright issues more transparent than they are at the moment I think.
I really hope hearing from you soon.
With best regards,
Honestly, I don't think I will get a reply from Google, but nevertheless, I thought this might be a more suitable approach.
I will keep you up to date if I get an answer at all.
See guys. Told you it would work out. And see how being polite got something done? By keeping a level head. Contacting them directly and being polite about it the problem was solved a lot faster and it seems for all of you.
I've also been hit with claims from IDG Germany on two of my wife's Let's Play videos. This isn't the first time this has happened to me, so let me clear up how this works for everyone who's confused.
YouTube has a program called "ContentID." It allows copyright holders to submit samples to YouTube. Every video that is uploaded to YouTube is run through ContentID to check for copyrighted material. If ContenID finds a "match" to a sample, YouTube gives you the "matched third party content" message on the video and gives you the chance to dispute the claim.
I have received 10+ of these messages regarding my channel since January, and NEVER have I had a valid claim. I have disputed every single one (from people such as "Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society" mostly). The ContentID program is broken - completely. It "hits" on things for the wrong copyright holders and misses a metric crap-ton of infringing content. But, U.S. Copyright law says that ISPs and sites like YouTube have to take "Reasonable Steps" to prevent copyright infringement or they will be liable for the infringement. Google's a huge company, but the ContentID program is likely the best that can be done with current technology.
So, I guess my main point is this: don't worry about the mistaken match. Dispute it, because it's wrong. (Now, if it's a copyright notice from TellTale games, then you can't dispute it.) I know YouTube tries to scare you with its notice about people who "abuse" the dispute process being kicked off of YouTube, but you're not "abusing" the system by disputing an invalid copyright claim.
Just know that no one's trying to make you out to be an infringer or a criminal - YouTube has to keep the content providers off their backs somehow, and this method is how they've (poorly) chosen to do that.
Very interesting insights PhantomRyu. I never had any troubles with this ContentID program, so personally I was rather shocked when I saw this on my videos.
If it's really that "simple" to just dispute the claim, I'll keep it in mind. On second thought, that's the most reasonable way to attend to these issues, as clearly, someone like IDG most probably doesn't own any rights on the contents of the videos at hand.
Of course, if Telltale claims their rights, that's another story - but anyone should be intelligent enough to determine that
Sad how US copyright laws make things such a pain in the "bottecks" though...
Actually, it's good that U.S. Copyright law is worded the way it is - it protects ISPs and sites like YouTube from liability. As long as they take reasonable measures to remove copyrighted material, they can't be sued for a video that you or I uploaded. If U.S. Copyright law weren't written like that, YouTube couldn't possibly exist - the costs of litigation would drive them out of business.
That being said, though, I've had no trouble disputing false copyright claims in the past - every single one of them has been retracted. As far as it being "easy" to dispute the claim, it is - as long as you're sure that you're right!
Sorry this happened to you guys. For the record, that company is not connected with us in any way, and we don't know why they're filing claims against so many videos. We have nothing to do with it, and we actively encourage and enjoy Let's Play style videos.
I am fairly positive these copyright flags are not technically mismatches.
As someone pointed out, IDG is the owner of German gaming magazine Gamestar. Gamestar uploaded a video review of The Walking Dead on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTQ0bqYeJJU and has also started a Let's Play of the series. Phantom Ryu said that content owners can submit samples to Youtube, so I think it's a distinct possibility that IDG claimed those Walking Dead videos (with their commentary) as their intellectual property.
The claim starts in the middle of the video, when the characters are having a conversation. So I'm assuming yes. Oh, if you mean by the game, yes, I'm Let's Playing "The Walking Dead".
Comments
But I fear that things are only going to be fine from this point on - don't know what happens to all the deleted videos, or channels being punished for breaking copyright rules, and I don't think there is anything that can be done. For this I know the "procedures" that Google follows not well enough...
Today the copyright claims are gone. So it took 3 days in total, but ofcourse the weekend is in those 3 days. So they resolved it quick. It still kinda bothers me though. Again i don't make money from the videos, my channel is too small and i don't think one can monetize gameplay videos anyway. But still, for a company to just claim random stuff bothers me.
I wonder if there is just an algorythm that is used or if it's really a person manually selecting videos. Either way is annoying. Especially for people trying to make some euros (or dollars).
What bothers me the most is that there was no contact at all. Even a little email saying "whoops! our bad" would be enough for me. Ah well, ranting time is over. Thank you for listening to that guys
I still think someting should be done, with the only "power" we have.
Something like a video offensive or something?
All of us make a video talking about the idiocy of the claims and naming our fellow youtubers who got hit in the vid and links. Maybe somebody has a better idea?
Feel free to contact me via youtube, i would gladly collect the list of people that got hit with this and give them to everyone making a vid about this.
I know it won't change much, but at least we get to voice our opinion and maybe help fellow youtubers that got hit too.
Ok, ok really done ranting now.
Honestly, I don't think I will get a reply from Google, but nevertheless, I thought this might be a more suitable approach.
I will keep you up to date if I get an answer at all.
Cheers.
YouTube has a program called "ContentID." It allows copyright holders to submit samples to YouTube. Every video that is uploaded to YouTube is run through ContentID to check for copyrighted material. If ContenID finds a "match" to a sample, YouTube gives you the "matched third party content" message on the video and gives you the chance to dispute the claim.
I have received 10+ of these messages regarding my channel since January, and NEVER have I had a valid claim. I have disputed every single one (from people such as "Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society" mostly). The ContentID program is broken - completely. It "hits" on things for the wrong copyright holders and misses a metric crap-ton of infringing content. But, U.S. Copyright law says that ISPs and sites like YouTube have to take "Reasonable Steps" to prevent copyright infringement or they will be liable for the infringement. Google's a huge company, but the ContentID program is likely the best that can be done with current technology.
So, I guess my main point is this: don't worry about the mistaken match. Dispute it, because it's wrong. (Now, if it's a copyright notice from TellTale games, then you can't dispute it.) I know YouTube tries to scare you with its notice about people who "abuse" the dispute process being kicked off of YouTube, but you're not "abusing" the system by disputing an invalid copyright claim.
Just know that no one's trying to make you out to be an infringer or a criminal - YouTube has to keep the content providers off their backs somehow, and this method is how they've (poorly) chosen to do that.
If it's really that "simple" to just dispute the claim, I'll keep it in mind. On second thought, that's the most reasonable way to attend to these issues, as clearly, someone like IDG most probably doesn't own any rights on the contents of the videos at hand.
Of course, if Telltale claims their rights, that's another story - but anyone should be intelligent enough to determine that
Sad how US copyright laws make things such a pain in the "bottecks" though...
That being said, though, I've had no trouble disputing false copyright claims in the past - every single one of them has been retracted. As far as it being "easy" to dispute the claim, it is - as long as you're sure that you're right!
As someone pointed out, IDG is the owner of German gaming magazine Gamestar. Gamestar uploaded a video review of The Walking Dead on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTQ0bqYeJJU and has also started a Let's Play of the series. Phantom Ryu said that content owners can submit samples to Youtube, so I think it's a distinct possibility that IDG claimed those Walking Dead videos (with their commentary) as their intellectual property.